As an AVO Magazine reader, you should know Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s music by now. Her 2011 debut single Pon Pon Pon has now been viewed 74 million times on YouTube. 4 years and 3 albums later and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has proved that she is not a one-hit wonder. Apart from those albums, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has also been on 2 world tours and has done 4 tours domestically. She also still has her own TV show and is very often on the covers of numerous magazines. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was discovered in Tokyo’s extremely hip fashion district Harajuku. Her enormous strength is combining her strong sense of fashion with music in her own unique way.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was born on 29 January 1993 in the town of Nishi-Tokyo, about 20km west of central Tokyo. Her real name is Kiriko Takemura. In high school, Kiriko began to take more and more interest in fashion and western culture. Thus, she regularly appeared at school wearing blonde wigs and soon her friends gave her the western-sounding nickname ‘Carrie’, which soon became Kyary. After Kyary started her fashion blog, she figured out that the name Kyary was actually too short and put Pamyu Pamyu after it.
Thanks to Kyary’s fashion blog and might I say fashion obsession, she was able to participate in a charity event in 2011 after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This included people from the fashion shop ‘6% Dokidoki’ from the aforementioned Harajuku. If you look at their website, you can see at a glance what makes Kyary’s heart beat faster. ‘Doki doki’ therefore means ‘make your heart beat faster’. Later, Kyary got in touch with top music producer Yasutaka Nakata. You should know him too, as he writes all the fun technopop songs by the all-female trio Perfume, his own band Capsule and singer Meg. Kyaru’s breakthrough with the song Pon Pon Pon is thanks to 3 people. First, Sebastian Masuda, founder of ‘6% Dokidoki’. His vision made the video look so eye-popping. Second, Yasutaka Nakata, who wrote a song that was tailor-made for Kyary. Thirdly, Kyary herself, of course. Her own ideas to bring some elements into the video, like the skulls, brains and dancers who have no faces. These elements, which don’t really belong there, gave the video just the contradictory feel that was completely right. Besides, of course, there were Kyary’s own dances and sparkling presence that gave Pon Pon Pon millions and millions of viewers.
Kyary now has 3 full-length albums to her credit. The first is called Pamyu Pamyu Revolution, released in in May 2012. Unfortunately, the album’s name is only partially accurate. All her upbeat techno/pop hits from Kyary’s early days like Pon Pon Pon, Tsukema tsukeru and Candy candy are on it then, and they definitely pop out of your speakers or headphones. Unfortunately, there are also some songs on there that when you listen to them really sound a bit less. Besides, Kyary’s strong suit is music and fashion, and fashion just can’t pop out of speakers. In June of 2013, the follow-up Nanda Collection was released, ‘Nan da (kore)’ being ‘What is (this)?’ in Japanese. The hits on this album pop a little less than, say, Pon Pon Pon, but are certainly no less in quality. And because Nanda Collection contains no song that I personally perceive as filler, the album keeps you entertained from start to finish. The music obviously remains very fun and funny, but because there has been more focus on making good songs, they also sound a bit more mature. And that, in turn, means you don’t miss Kyary’s fashion sense as much. Kyary’s most recent album is called Pika Pika Fantajin and was released in July 2014. ‘Pika pika’ means radiant, like the rays that come out of Pokemon’s Pikachu when he is angry. ‘Fantajin’ comes from Fantasy, ‘Jin’ is person. Apart from the fact that the best songs are obviously different from Kyary’s first album, this one again struggles with some lesser songs. All in all, I would conclude that Kyary’s 3 albums are definitely good enough to buy them if you like her music, but if like me you are more into the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu phenomenon as a whole, there is a better way to spend your money. More on this later.
In Japan itself, as a fan, you will certainly not be short of anything Kyary does besides her music. For instance, she also has her own TV programme Kyary Pamyu Pamyu TV John!. In that programme, the emphasis is again not on her music but on a kind of fantasy world with strange sketches. As an example, a skit discussing the Japanese phenomenon ‘Goro Awase’. This means ‘Japanese word game’, in which songs are used to represent words in a kind of cryptic description. As an example ’23’, which means ‘ni san’ or ‘elder brother’. Of course, Kyary makes it a lot trickier and the surprise is great when you see what such a row of numbers means. Do you now know what ’39’ means? You understand that a programme with all funny sketches like this is great fun. Fortunately, 2 DVDs of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu TV John! have now been released. Interesting for anyone who likes Kyary’s personality more than her music, or with her music still feels like something is missing.
Surely the most complete way to enjoy Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is to attend one of her concerts, and preferably one in Japan. Kyary has now done 2 world tours, during which she has been reasonably close to the Netherlands twice. That was on 9 February 2013 in Brussels for the 100%KPP World Tour and on 27 April 2014 in Cologne for the Nanda Collection World Tour 2014. A DVD/blu-ray of that first world tour has since been released, featuring both concert footage and a behind-the-scenes look. Although a world tour does put limits on the amount of gear and people Kyary could bring, this is still a compelling video about how much fun a Japanese concert can be. For instance, she also played in small venues and you could stand nice and close as an audience. I also wouldn’t be at all surprised to see yourself jumping along to Kyary’s songs. Suddenly, I realised that those songs I saw on Kyary’s first album as filler suddenly find great fun songs when sung live, so the shortcoming was really that you couldn’t see her! Concerts from her Japanese tours are obviously even bigger but if you’ve been to Brussels you definitely want to have these live DVD/blu-rays too. DVDs/blu-rays of 2 of Kyary’s tours in Japan have now been released, which although obviously different they are both really both absolute must-sees. As with the music video for Pon pon pon, everything suddenly falls into place, the hugely enjoyable songs, the improbably funny dances by the many dancers you know from the music videos, the set which exactly connects the dots of Kyary’s style that is so recognisable. And finally, the radiant centrepiece Kyary Pamyu Pamyu who manages to enchant everyone with her voice, dance, costumes and facial expressions.
Have fun listening and watching!
Charles
